Education Week 12/01/2010 issue

Class-Size Limits Targeted for Cuts, p. 1

As schools cope with budget shortfalls, some are considering increasing class sizes.  This would be a step in the opposite direction from the long-term national trend.  Nationally, average class size has gone from  17.6 in 1980 to 15.8 in 2008.  These figures may be deceptive, however, in that they include special education classes and other specialized classes, the number of which have increased since 1980 and which typically have small classes.  The U.S. Department of Education estimates actual class size to be closer to 25 students.

Those who push for smaller class sizes argue it is the simplest way to increase student achievement.  A 1984 study in Tennessee that tracked over 7,000 K-3 students over four years compared students who were placed in classes of 13-17 students vs. those in classes of 22-25.  It showed higher student performance in the smaller classes, including poor and minority students.  Follow up studies years later indicated that the small-class students went to college, got married, and bought houses at higher rates than their large-class peers.  Results like this make small classes a popular idea with teachers and parents.

When other states have tried to replicate Tennessee’s experiment, however, there have been mixed results, leading to skepticism on the part of some researchers and policy makers.  Some critics contend that small class sizes are too expensive for the minimal improvement in achievement.  Japan and South Korea both have higher average class sizes than the U.S., although their students out-perform American students.   Federal funding for reducing class sizes, common in the 1990’s, was left out of the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act.  Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has proposed that targeted increases in class sizes could be combined with programs such as varying class sizes by teacher expertise, or bringing in part-time staff to help with larger classes.  Some school districts have experimented with different approaches.  One of the more interesting approaches is the one tried at New York’s Generation Schools Network, where instructors where hired to fill some administrative positions.  Each morning, almost everyone jumps in to help teach 90-minute blocks of basic courses, keeping the class sizes small.  In the afternoon, the regular teachers concentrate on electives, with larger class sizes.  Overall, teacher loads are smaller than at other New York schools, while operating costs are slightly cheaper.

Some school districts have accepted larger class sizes simply to maintain existing programs in tight times, such as music programs.  Some schools have willingly traded smaller class sizes to find funding for other reforms.  In the Nogales school district in Arizona, for example, they have added more math and reading specialists as class sizes rose, and test scores have risen each year in spite of larger classes.

[My thoughts:  tight budgets may require us to become more experimental and innovative, which can be a good thing in itself.  But how much better to have both small classes and innovative programs.  I cannot help but think that, although the public has to re-think its priorities in tough times, education has got to be at the top of anyone’s priority list.  Our children’s futures are at stake.]

Education Week 11/17/2010 issue

New Tack on NCLB: Regulatory Relief, p. 1

School districts struggling under the mandatory provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act are hoping for a reprieve from the Department of Education.  They argue that financially-strapped school districts should not spend money to meet the requirements of a law that may be re-written by a new Congress.  The DOE is pushing for renewal of the law, while saying that it is taking these concerns “into consideration.”  Looming on the horizon is the 2013-2014 deadline for bringing all students up to proficiency in reading and math.  Schools will be hit by sanctions for not meeting these targets, which will impact school district and state finances.

The school districts are calling for “regulatory relief” in this matter, which may resonate with the incoming Republican majority in the House of Representatives, many of whom ran on a platform of “slimmed-down” government.  Civil rights groups who are focused on improving education for disadvantaged students are leery of watering down the law’s core principles, however.  They do not want to abandon accountability goals at the heart of NCLB.  And the Obama administration may conclude that it too wants to avoid the prospect of Republican criticism that it has caved in on accountability.

Education groups (the AASA and the NSBA, for example) are pushing for concessions, such as suspending sanctions for schools that do not meet NCLB achievement targets until a new law is in place.  Some have proposed two-year testing of students as opposed to annual testing.  Others point out that we need annual testing to track students’ progress, and giving flexibility to the states will only allow them to “game” the system one more time.  Those wanting changes hope that this will come in a reauthorization of the bill in 2011.  The Obama administration is hoping for a renewal, but the Republican House may want to look at it all over again.  There could be a full-blown renewal, or a targeted “patch,” which might make targeted changes but without changing the basic structure of NCLB.

[My thoughts: “Regulatory relief” is the perfect term to present to a Republican House of Representatives if you want to circumvent government mandates, in education or any other area.  The question should be whether or not it is in the students’ best interests that schools be held to these standards.  Are these NCLB standards appropriate and meaningful, or are they arbitrary and possibly counterproductive?  These are the questions we ought to be debating.  There should be no Republican view of education vs. a Democratic view of education.  Yes, teachers typically support Democrats, who typically are willing to spend more money on education.  Political coalitions aside, we should all want what is best for our kids and we should be willing to pay for it.]

Education Week 11/10/2010 issue

Public Schools Taking Lessons from Charters, p. 1

Proponents of charter schools view the role of these schools as promising research-and-development sites for traditional public schools.  But so far there has not been much cooperation between charter schools and public schools.  In 2009 the U.S. Department of Education spent $6.7 million on grants to encourage charter schools to share what they’ve learned with other schools, and it is hoping to promote the spread of promising charter school practices.  There seems to be some disagreement over how much charter schools have to share, however.  Some of the charter school ionnovations, such as extended school schedules and small school size, had already been introduced in some public schools, for example.

There have been some examples of charter school-public school collaboration.  In a troubled school district in Rhode Island, for example, the district contracted with the charter school to provide professional development for some of its reading teachers.  This collaboration was credited with improved student reading scores for the district.  And a school district in Tacoma, Washington, has borrowed some charter-school practices, resulting in improved test scores.  At one of its high schools, almost one-fourth of its students attend a special school-within-a-school (Lincoln Center) modeled after specific charter schools and incorporating some of their practices.  Lincoln Center is open from 7:30am-5:00pm Monday through Friday, plus two Saturdays a month.  Its academic standards for  students are more rigorous than state standards.  It also is selective in its choice of teachers, picking those with successful classroom experience.  Teachers work extra hours as needed, but they are also compensated for this above and beyond their union contract.

The Tacoma district is working with Harvard University economist Roland Fryer.  Fryer has identified five tenets of successful schools:  investing in human capital, providing extensive tutoring, extending time for learning, creating a culture of high expectations, and using results-based instruction.  The district is working in competition with charter schools, however, not in collaboration with them.  Whether public schools will be able to benefit from charter school innovations seems to depend on whether conditions in a particular district are ripe for collaboration.

[My thoughts:  the bottom line ought to be what practices are most beneficial to students’ learning, not where did they come from.  There should be a free exchange of ideas and an open dialog about what works best.  Students in all schools, charter or traditional, should benefit from successful experimentation.]

Education Week 11/03/2010 issue

Funds Fuel Graduation Initiatives, p.1

The U.S. Department of Education is providing almost $50 million in grants to states and school districts to fund a high school graduation initiative.  This was the first installment, with hopefully more to come in five-year grants.  The current overall high school graduation rate is 70%, but this figure drops to 50% in poor communities.  This high school completion strategy ties in with one of President Obama’s goals, to make the U.S. the leader in college completion.

The funding is aimed at both helping schools keep students from dropping out and bringing back students who had already dropped out.  The new emphasis is on monitoring student attendance, behavior, and coursework in middle school, looking for warning signs.  The focus will be on helping individual students rather than demographic groups of students.  The program will enlist the aid of social service groups and community groups to help returning dropouts make up lost ground, using school “acceleration institutes” and community-based “re-engagement specialists” such as social workers.

The new initiative provides a welcome focus on improvement in high school graduation rates as part of the push to increase college graduation rates.  The future of the initiative is uncertain, however, given funding uncertainties due to the financial crisis.

City’s Black Males Stay in School, p. 1

Baltimore school leaders have been working with a program over the past three years to keep more students in school and on track to graduation.  One result:  Black male students’ graduation rate has increased from 51% in 2006-2007 to 57.3% in 2009-2010.  Overall graduation rates went from 60% to 66% over the same time span.  Blacks make up 87.8% of enrollment in city schools.  Comparable national figures for 2006-2007:  46.7% of African American males graduated versus 73.7% of white males.  The district has also scored higher on National Assessments (83.6%) than would be expected in a high-poverty area.  The emphasis of the program has been on reducing absenteeism and suspensions, providing students with more public school choice options, and enlisting community partnerships.  One strategy has been the “Great Kids Come Back Campaign,” with volunteer s knocking on doors to try to bring back dropouts.

One key has been to change the expectations of adults—it was always assumed that a certain percentage of students would be lost, based on practices such as showing the door to students who came infrequently, who had discipline problems, or who were old but had too few credits.  Instead, an “intervention period” was created for such students while efforts were made to help get them back on track.

Student mindsets had to change as well.  Community group leaders, who “speak a language the community understands,” have been used to help bring defiant and disruptive students into the program.

Education Week 10/27/2010 issue

Turnaround Team Picks Up the Pace in Kentucky, p. 1

The new principal and the teachers (half of whom are new) at one of Kentucky’s worst schools (ranking among the bottom ten in performance) are feeling  pressure to turn things around.  Their effort is part of a national $3.5 billion effort by the Secretary of Education to fix the nation’s most chronically underperforming schools.  In Spring 2010, before the turnaround effort began at the high school, just 4.7% scored proficient or better in math and under ¼ of students scored proficient or better in reading.  Faculty efforts to turn things around have emphasized both the academic and the personal, showing students that teachers are passionate (critical to motivating teenagers), but also caring and patient.  The faculty are asking students to do new and different things, with high expectations in all classes and  a stress on literacy regardless of subject matter.  The teachers have been aided by a trio of turnaround staff from the state education department, each of whom spends 3-4 hours a day in classrooms or meeting with staff.

There was some initial resistance on the part of students, especially seniors, but they soon got used to things.  Attendance has improved.  There have been efforts to communicate and build relationships with students as a well as among teaching staff.  A “data wall” accessible to teachers in the classroom and only visible to them holds information about each student, including their faces and test scores.  In what is called a “name and claim” intervention, teachers each take on two or three failing students and give them extra attention, including a series of specific interventions.  There is a concern that moving too quickly as they step up the pace of curriculum and instruction will leave some kids behind.  Teachers try to balance the faster pace by pulling students aside if they don’t master concepts and by giving them needed extra help.  Teachers feel that there is a new sense of community at the school, with departments working together for the first time in years.

Education Week 10/20/2010 issue

Early-Years Absenteeism Seen as Critical, p. 1

While most of us think of absenteeism as a secondary-school problem,  absenteeism rates in kindergarten and first grade can rival those of high school.  One in ten K-12 students nationwide miss 10% or more of school.  Reducing this figure is important because studies show that absenteeism is especially acute among students from low-income families and it is related to poor academic performance, disengagement from school, and behavior problems.  High absenteeism in kindergarten is associated with poorer test scores at the end of first grade and with continued absenteeism in later grades.

Addressing kindergarten absenteeism requires a different approach than secondary-school truancy intervention.  For one thing, kindergarten is not mandatory in many states.  Parents often don’t realize the implications of pulling their child out of school—students are now learning to read in kindergarten, and absenteeism can be disruptive to their learning.  Home issues like the child or his siblings being ill or a parent of parents who work nights and who are too tired to get their child off to school can be factors in this absenteeism.  One school in the Bronx has taken a proactive approach to absenteeism.  They interviewed parents of high-absenteeism students to determine what the sources of the problem were.  In exchange for a commitment by parents to get their kids to school, school staff performed duties such as taking children to doctors’ appointments and providing before and after school child care.

[My thoughts:  Reducing absenteeism is certainly a worthy goal.  Students cannot learn as well if they are not in class, obviously.  The correlation between absenteeism and other factors such as poor performance on tests or behavior problems could result in part from the relationship of all of these factors to more primary factors, such as support of the child’s education by parent s (whether they read to them, help them with their homework, expect them to do well in school, etc.).  Supportive parents are more likely to make sure that their kids gets to school, behave properly, and do well.  Absenteeism may not be the direct cause of poor academic performance (although it could certainly be a contributing factor), but rather it could be the result of particular students having parents who do not value school attendance or doing well in school.  A more direct approach to the primary problem would be to work with parents to convince them of the importance of their child’s education and encourage them to become actively involved in this by helping with homework and monitoring the student’s progress in school.  Success in these efforts would improve absenteeism rates and academic performance.]

Education Week 10/13/2010 issue

Raising Expectations Is Aim of New Effort, p. 1

A New Jersey school district chose to include students in their teacher workshops, which were sponsored by the Urban Alliance.  The idea was behind the workshops was to counter the influence of low teacher expectations in dealing with students (the “bigotry of low expectations”).  By including students, the district hoped to help teachers look at their students in a new way.

In the workshops, although teachers and students were not equal, each learned more about the other and learned new techniques together.  On the second day, students team-taught a writing session.  Teachers were amazed to find unpromising students helping other students.  Teachers said the workshops were eye-opening.

Ambitious Race to Top Plans Put School Districts on Spot, p. 1

Eleven states and the District of Columbia have won $4 billion in federal race to the top funds.  All had commitments from teachers unions and local school districts to help carry out the plans.   Winners of the second round have to submit their “scope of work” plans to the Dept. of Education by Nov. 22^nd.  If enough districts in a state fail to submit their plans, that state could lose its race to the top funds, but the deadlines represent a number of challenges.

Some districts have been asked to spell out how they will ge agreements from teachers’ unions on teacher evaluations and pay for performance.  Florida’s application called for a new system of evaluation of teachers and principals based in part on improvement on student achievement tests.

In making changes, local implementation will be an important factor, since at least 50% of the state awards must go to local education agencies, once their scopes of work have been approved.  But local districts are concerned that Race to the Top funding may not cover the costs of making the changes.  They will face a number of challenges, but the biggest challenge will be time.

Education Week 10/6/2010 issue

Appeals Court Curbs U.S. Rule on Alternative Certification, p. 6

There has been an ongoing debate over traditional vs. alternative paths to teaching.  On the one hand, Teach for America, New Teacher Project , and other groups have supported alternative routes to certification and have conditionally certified teachers so that they can begin teaching before they’ve completed their programs.

On the other hand, proponents of the traditional path to teacher certification through colleges of education have argued against making exceptions for alternate-route teachers, since the No Child Left Behind requires teachers to have full state licensure.  They point to the varying quality of the alternative routes to certification and their lack of mentoring and support.

One more wrinkle in the debate came from a group of California activists who argued that a disproportionate number of teachers with “intern” status were teaching in minority and low-income schools in California.

A federal appeals court last week reversed itself and struck down its previous ruling that had allowed teachers making “satisfactory progress”  toward alternative certification to be considered “highly qualified” under the No Child Left Behind guidelines.  The dissenting judge in the 2-1 decision, a supporter of the Teach for America position, pointed out that the experienced, “highly qualified” teachers often find positions in suburban schools, leaving interns to fill positions in poor and minority classrooms.   

Education Week 9/29/2010 issue

Study Finds Homeless Pupils Hard Hit by School Closures, p. 6

Nationwide, there has been a push to close low-performing schools by cash-strapped school districts and those who are implementing turnaround programs such as Race to the Top.    A recent study that focused on New York City schools indicated that homeless students were disproportionately affected by these school closings.  Because homeless students tend to be mobile, they often get placed in schools that have the most openings, and these are often the underperforming schools.  Homeless students are more likely to be at-risk students and are twice as likely to repeat a grade as students from stable homes, for example.  In 26 states from 2007-2009 the percentage of homeless students has increased over 50%, which suggests that the problem will only get bigger.  There has been inadequate planning for, transitioning, and monitoring of homeless students after these closures.  Some homeless students have been devastated by the closures, academically and socially.

Minneapolis public schools have been trying to brace for both the increase in homeless students and the increased school closings.  The school district there weighs the stability of a school when deciding where to place homeless students.  The Minneapolis model is something that other districts should look at when considering how to deal with their homeless students.

Education Week 9/22/2010 issue

Federal Aid Adds  Twist to Election, p. 1

Government’s proper role weighed against benefits

State officials and even some Republican lawmakers, who normally resent the federal government “intruding” in education, see value in accepting federal funds while states are in dire financial straits

Massive federal spending as part of stimuls package--$787 billion, $100 billion to education, $26 billion state aid

·         Save jobs

·         Propping up budgets

·         Support innovation in education

Republican response

·         Proper to support states

·         Against national standards and tests

·         Against increased federal role in education

Race to the top should please conservatives—promote charter schools, merit pay for teachers, in some cases a data system to track student academic progress

[My thoughts: Ideology, not what is best for students, seems to be the primary consideration for some of these politicians, Governor Perry of Texas in particular.]

Rhee Reflective in Aftershock of D.C. Primary, p. 1

Michele Rhee, chancellor of the D.C. public schools since 2007, has had a controversial tenure.  Although she had no previous experience running a school system, she was hired by Mayor Adrian Fenty to clean up the school system.  She pushed to close dilapidated, poorly-performing schools, she pushed for performance pay for teachers, and she moved to fire underperforming central office workers.  Under her leadership, test scores have improved, enrollment decline has slowed, and the bureaucracy has implemented data-driven processes.

Her boss failed to win his Democratic primary on Sept. 14^th, however, and Ms. Rhee’s future may be in doubt.  There may be a backlash against her by parents and by teachers who have been turned off by her leadership and who feel that they have been left out of the process.  Examining her record, one can find evidence of success:  improved graduation rates, improved test scores, and a successful campaign to upgrade buildings.  While voters liked the changes, they did not like the leadership styles of those responsible.  They turned out Mr. Fenty.  Without his support, Rhee appears to be carefully weighing her options.

[My thoughts:  When the situation gets bad enough, people want a take-charge individual to come in and clean it up.  Then, when she is doing what needs to be done and is making progress, the same people get their feathers ruffled and are put off by her leadership style.  They should remember the adage, “You have to break some eggs to make an omelette.”]

Scholars Suggest Adding ‘Gap Year’ May Encourage College Completion, p. 12

Studies tout the motivational power of time off after high school

The idea of a gap or bridge year between high school and college, sometimes involving 6-12 months of travel, seems to be taking hold in the US.  Research in Australia suggests that it is lower-performing students who were more inclined to take a gap year, but the gappers also appeared to have higher motivation when they did get to college.  One US study found that students who delayed entry into college were less likely to complete a degree, however.   

Some elite colleges encourage gapping by students, encouraging them to do a year of service abroad, for example.  The authors of The Gap Year Advantage have found that burnout and “wanting to find out more about themselves” were the two main reasons why students took a gap year.  Nine out of ten returned to college within a year, and 60% said that their time off had helped them to confirm a career or a major.  Many had rewarding experiences during this time off, especially those who were able to travel.

[My thoughts:  For those who are not yet mature enough for college, a year off could help.  Sometimes experience flipping burgers at McDonald's convinces young adults that they want to do more with their lives, and they could come back more motivated than they had been before.